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The Menagerie #1
The Nimble Man
THEY ARE BEINGS OF MYTH AND LEGEND.
THEY POSSESS POWERS BEYOND IMAGINING.
THEY ARE OUR ONLY HOPE...
THE MENAGERIE
Behind the façade of a stately Boston brownstone, humanity's last defenses are being marshaled. Called to action by the enigmatic, brilliant man known only as Mr. Doyle, they hail from all planes of existence and are born from an array of supernatural and otherwordly back-grounds and bloodlines. But as the group struggles to come to terms with their shadowy pasts, personal demons, and conflicting loyalties, their greatest challenge awaits them.
Together, they will confront the minions of utter darkness, who have already begun their quest to resurrect the most malevolent of the fallen angels - whose wrath against mankind knows no bounds...
(Description from back cover of mass market paperback edition)
THEY POSSESS POWERS BEYOND IMAGINING.
THEY ARE OUR ONLY HOPE...
THE MENAGERIE
Behind the façade of a stately Boston brownstone, humanity's last defenses are being marshaled. Called to action by the enigmatic, brilliant man known only as Mr. Doyle, they hail from all planes of existence and are born from an array of supernatural and otherwordly back-grounds and bloodlines. But as the group struggles to come to terms with their shadowy pasts, personal demons, and conflicting loyalties, their greatest challenge awaits them.
Together, they will confront the minions of utter darkness, who have already begun their quest to resurrect the most malevolent of the fallen angels - whose wrath against mankind knows no bounds...
(Description from back cover of mass market paperback edition)
344 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published September 28, 2004
17 people are currently reading
445 people want to read
About the author
Christopher Golden
798 books2,960 followersCHRISTOPHER GOLDEN is the New York Times bestselling, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of such novels as Road of Bones, Ararat, Snowblind, Of Saints and Shadows, and Red Hands. With Mike Mignola, he is the co-creator of the Outerverse comic book universe, including such series as Baltimore, Joe Golem: Occult Detective, and Lady Baltimore. As an editor, he has worked on the short story anthologies Seize the Night, Dark Cities, and The New Dead, among others, and he has also written and co-written comic books, video games, screenplays, and a network television pilot. Golden co-hosts the podcast Defenders Dialogue with horror author Brian Keene. In 2015 he founded the popular Merrimack Valley Halloween Book Festival. He was born and raised in Massachusetts, where he still lives with his family. His work has been nominated for the British Fantasy Award, the Eisner Award, and multiple Shirley Jackson Awards. For the Bram Stoker Awards, Golden has been nominated ten times in eight different categories. His original novels have been published in more than fifteen languages in countries around the world. Please visit him at www.christophergolden.com
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
March 16, 2019
The Nimble Man has an interesting plot and and all the trappings of a good urban fantasy. Sadly the writing was horrible. The execution of the plot was erratic and the prose was vapid. The story is told in a flat tone, even when the characters are fighting or doing anything interesting the author made it sound dull and boring. The characters are all one dimensional. It's mentioned that they've know each other for quite a long time but there is no camaraderie between them. It felt like a couple of strangers came together for a job and got quite bore doing it. The only character that sparked any interest was Danny Ferrick. I want to give this series another chance because as I said before that it does have the elements of a good UF. I'm also thinking of skipping the next book and go on to read Danny's story in Stones Unturned.
Read
February 17, 2020DNF
July 3, 2025
6/10
June 21, 2015
The Menagerie is a very pleasing series of collaborative urban fantasy novels by Thomas E. Sniegoski and Christopher Golden. They books feature a large and diverse cast of characters such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Eve (yes, -that- Eve!), and influences ranging from Lovecraft and Alan Moore to traditional ghost and Fae folklore and all manner of mythology. It's like The Avengers and a Justice team got together in a cool prose situation, with great McGrath covers. Each volume tells a self-contained story as well as building upon the previous ones; unfortunately a huge threat is slowly revealed to be getting closer and closer... but only four novels appeared, leaving an annoying cliff-hanger. Nonetheless, they're all a lot of well-written fun.
December 2, 2010
This is a good start to a series. We have a cast of unlikely heroes, led by none other than Arthur Conan Doyle, and a very good story. This book has everything, vampires, shape shifters, demons, ghosts and hobgoblins. The story is intriguing and fast paced, the characters are intriguing (I can't wait to read the rest of the books in the series just to see their development and back story), and it made me laugh out loud in several places, while it was serious in others. And the best thing about it, it reminds me of my favourite comics I used to read as a child. Really enjoyed this one.
May 24, 2008
An ex boyfriend gave me this novel, comprised of characters that any christian reader should recognize. Don't get me wrong if you aren't christian you'll probably recognize the characters as well (and definatley probably be less offended, but i deviate). The characters are extremely well developed, with back histories that you only learn about in future novels. If you like bands of unlikely heroes kicking butt to save the universe this is definatley a book for you.
April 8, 2012
This was an enjoyable urban fantasy book that was a bit like The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, with Adam and Eve and Arthur Conan Doyle as some of the recognizable characters. If you like the genre but get fatigued from the overabundance of female-main-character-and-her-neverending-love-triangle offerings, I recommend checking this one out.
July 12, 2009
This is an above average paranormal thriller with the Menagerie fighting the forces of evil who are trying to resurrect the most evil of the fallen angels, The Nimble Man, who was hidden in a limbo dimension when Lucifer fell. If they fail, The Nimble Man will destroy mankind.
The book was a little loosely woven and convoluted but it still left you wanting to read more on the characters.
The book was a little loosely woven and convoluted but it still left you wanting to read more on the characters.
April 5, 2021
Interesting start to a nw scifi/fantasy series. I have read other books by Thomas Sniegoski, which I enjoyed. Since the book has two authors, at times it feels a bit as if the writers are still working out the internal worldview/theology of the 'world' and working to find a 'joint'voice, as opposed to a good collaboration. That said, I do plan to continue reading the series. it seems as if the premise of the fight of good/evil could be interesting.
August 1, 2018
Kind of pompous.
November 28, 2018
An interesting read. But not good enough to have me continue with the series.
December 21, 2020
Fun romp but by no means groundbreaking. If you want absurd and creative paranormal shenanigans, this won't disappoint, but if you're looking for a polished piece of literature, it will.
August 9, 2011
This novel had all the elements of a great urban fantasy: a cast of colorful characters (the Menagerie) including a vampire, a shapeshifter and a demon, led by a familiar yet newly interpreted figure – Arthur Conan Doyle; an apocalypse complete with a downpour of frogs, zombies and bloody fog; a wicked faerie, goblins and an uber powerful wizard sealed in crystal; and a totally clueless humanity. Reminded me of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, with a fantasy element. And I have really enjoyed Christopher Golden’s work before. However, something didn’t meld right in this novel. It took me several days to finish the book because I kept putting it down. I’m not sure if this is a result of two authors working the story, or not.
The characters were great, and well crafted. I like the idea of Doyle as a powerful wizard, with an equally powerful ego, watching over humanity. I completely loved the character of Eve (yes, THAT Eve) who is the mother of all vampires. The goblin squire added a lot of humor and was very likeable. And how cool that he can travel through shadows? Clay was a mystery I’d love to unravel. There was a lot of witty, clever dialog amongst them all. I think the problem was the plot. Despite what seemed like a lot of action, the book plodded along. Doyle is searching for the world’s most powerful wizard, Sweetblood, who locked himself away so others wouldn’t try to use his power for evil. Doyle needs to find him to stop a coming apocalypse. Someone else is searching for Sweetblood, an evil fey princess. She wants to release The Nimble Man – a mysterious menace that isn’t even mentioned until 2/3 of the way through the book, despite being the title! – and needs Sweetblood. Guess how she finds him? That’s the plot in a nutshell. We find out the real danger comes later, now that Sweetblood is free, so this book almost felt like a set-up for the real novel to come later.
Though I can’t pinpoint exactly what went wrong, I like the characters enough that I’ll try the next book in the series. If you are looking for new dark or urban fantasy, this is worthwhile. It just didn’t satisfy like I hoped.
The characters were great, and well crafted. I like the idea of Doyle as a powerful wizard, with an equally powerful ego, watching over humanity. I completely loved the character of Eve (yes, THAT Eve) who is the mother of all vampires. The goblin squire added a lot of humor and was very likeable. And how cool that he can travel through shadows? Clay was a mystery I’d love to unravel. There was a lot of witty, clever dialog amongst them all. I think the problem was the plot. Despite what seemed like a lot of action, the book plodded along. Doyle is searching for the world’s most powerful wizard, Sweetblood, who locked himself away so others wouldn’t try to use his power for evil. Doyle needs to find him to stop a coming apocalypse. Someone else is searching for Sweetblood, an evil fey princess. She wants to release The Nimble Man – a mysterious menace that isn’t even mentioned until 2/3 of the way through the book, despite being the title! – and needs Sweetblood. Guess how she finds him? That’s the plot in a nutshell. We find out the real danger comes later, now that Sweetblood is free, so this book almost felt like a set-up for the real novel to come later.
Though I can’t pinpoint exactly what went wrong, I like the characters enough that I’ll try the next book in the series. If you are looking for new dark or urban fantasy, this is worthwhile. It just didn’t satisfy like I hoped.
December 8, 2014
3.5 Stars
Dark urban fantasy
For the most part I liked this book, but it did have issues. It is book 1 of a series, and suffers the usual set-up problems of introducing the characters and building the world. At times this did not flow well, and at others it just got kind of slow. The characters could have been very interesting based on their origins and conditions, but most of them just felt kind of flat. The thing that irked me the most though was the constant references to the Red Mist. Every situation had someone peering through the red mist, something walking out of the red mist, something hidden in the red mist, or the red mist rolling over something. I get it, it is foggy, move on.
THE NIMBLE MAN did not keep me nearly as engrossed as Christopher Golden's VEIL series did. I will read the next book, I'm just not in a big hurry to get to it.
Dark urban fantasy
For the most part I liked this book, but it did have issues. It is book 1 of a series, and suffers the usual set-up problems of introducing the characters and building the world. At times this did not flow well, and at others it just got kind of slow. The characters could have been very interesting based on their origins and conditions, but most of them just felt kind of flat. The thing that irked me the most though was the constant references to the Red Mist. Every situation had someone peering through the red mist, something walking out of the red mist, something hidden in the red mist, or the red mist rolling over something. I get it, it is foggy, move on.
THE NIMBLE MAN did not keep me nearly as engrossed as Christopher Golden's VEIL series did. I will read the next book, I'm just not in a big hurry to get to it.
January 5, 2015
For the love of God, get a copy editor.
I made it through one-half of the first chapter and had already marked five missing commas and a missing semi-colon in the typo reporting tool in my Kindle.
Here's a hint: if you have a sentence with two clauses, you need a comma. If you have a sentence that contains two clauses but also contains a list of items separated by commas, use a semi-colon.
With all the missing punctuation, the multiple sentence fragments and the tedious run-on sentences I found in the first chapter alone, I realized that I wasn't pointing out typos at all. I was simply noting the by-product of poor writing. It's a shame. I picked this book up because I enjoyed Golden's work on the Hellboy novellas, for which I'm now guessing Mignola must have supplied an editor--one was sorely needed here.
I had to stop reading it. I was getting too angry.
I made it through one-half of the first chapter and had already marked five missing commas and a missing semi-colon in the typo reporting tool in my Kindle.
Here's a hint: if you have a sentence with two clauses, you need a comma. If you have a sentence that contains two clauses but also contains a list of items separated by commas, use a semi-colon.
With all the missing punctuation, the multiple sentence fragments and the tedious run-on sentences I found in the first chapter alone, I realized that I wasn't pointing out typos at all. I was simply noting the by-product of poor writing. It's a shame. I picked this book up because I enjoyed Golden's work on the Hellboy novellas, for which I'm now guessing Mignola must have supplied an editor--one was sorely needed here.
I had to stop reading it. I was getting too angry.
Read
August 11, 2011A good concept let down by poor writing. I got halfway through and couldn't be bothered to finish it. The writing is overly simplistic and sometimes phrases are repeated too often,giving it a sloppy feel. It's overly simplistic as well and has the feel of something that was written purely to be adapted into a movie or TV series. For a better exploration of a similar concept read Alan Moore and Kevin O' Neill's graphic novel,The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
August 11, 2016
I had read the second book in the series and searched to try and find the others, my wonderful boyfriend got me the first one 'The Nimble Man' for Christmas. I quite like this series and wish they had written more, it is four books total and I think they would make excellent books for young adults, they will make them want to look up Greek mythology or they make me want to anyway. Some of the subject matter is kind of mature so an older young adult would be my recommendation.
January 3, 2012
Having developed quite the dark fantasy cravings, this one certainly fit my desires. But dark it certainly was. The horrific happenings harkened back to my recent read of The Gathering Dark (also by Christopher Golden), and overall, the portrayal of the characters opened my eyes and mind to all sorts of possibilities.
I look forward to the next novel in the series, Tears of the Furies.
I look forward to the next novel in the series, Tears of the Furies.
June 21, 2022
This was a good urban fantasy book about a team of characters, instead of the normal single character, first person narrative that most urban fantasies tend to be. Good cast of characters led by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. If you like stories that more closely reflect what you might find in a diverse RPG session, then you will enjoy this one.
December 6, 2013
It was ok. I felt the author was trying to over reach with the characters. They felt borrowed from cliché's and not very original. The story was predictable if not a bit sophomoric. In the end it was well paced and wrapped up nicely. I personally am not interested in reading more from this storyline.
December 10, 2013
Interesting and unique storyline. Too bad the book's editing is so horrendous! I've never read Golden's work but, I've read all of Sniegoski's Remy Chandler books and I didn't have to plod through terrible editing.
June 17, 2009
Love the premise, but I remember wanting more from this book. The following books have a little more meat...
July 13, 2009
Read in Honolulu and Kona, Hawaii. What dreck! Christopher Golden is usually better, still not great but better than this effluence.
January 3, 2011
Was a fun read. Like "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" but a bit more involved. Not a great book, but fun to read.
January 21, 2013
I love this book. Urban fantasy at it's best. Unfortunately they ended the series after book four.
November 10, 2013
Interesting read. Looking forward to more books in this series.
Want to read
June 6, 2016Picked up as part of the Modern Magic pack - 12 paranormal novels, all first novels of a series. An awesome deal!
February 9, 2010
This is a great story! I plan on following the Menagerie wherever they go.
May 23, 2013
A bit too Lovecraft for my tastes.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews